Don Brash

Don Brash
4th Leader of ACT New Zealand
In office 28 April 2011 – 26 November 2011
Preceded by	Rodney Hide
Succeeded by	John Banks
30th Leader of the Opposition
In office 28 October 2003 – 27 November 2006
Prime Minister	Helen Clark
Deputy	Nick Smith Gerry Brownlee
Preceded by	Bill English
Succeeded by	John Key
10th Leader of the National Party
In office 28 October 2003 – 27 November 2006
Deputy	Nick Smith Gerry Brownlee
Preceded by	Bill English
Succeeded by	John Key
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for National Party list
In office 27 July 2002 – 6 February 2007
Succeeded by	Katrina Shanks[n 1]
9th Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
In office 1 September 1988 – 26 April 2002
Preceded by	Sir Spencer Russell
Succeeded by	Alan Bollard
Personal details
Born	(1940-09-24) 24 September 1940 (age 83) Whanganui, New Zealand
Political party	ACT (2011–)
Other political affiliations	National (1980–2011)
Spouse(s)	Erica Brash (1964–1985) Je Lan Lee (1985–2007)
Relations	Thomas Brash (grandfather); Alan Brash (father)
Children	3
Alma mater	Australian National University (PhD) and University of Canterbury (Masters and Bachelors)
Profession	Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Donald Thomas Brash (born 24 September 1940) is a former New Zealand politician who was Leader of the Opposition and leader of the New Zealand National Party from October 2003 to November 2006, and leader of the ACT New Zealand party for seven months from April to November 2011.

Brash was Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for fourteen years from 1988 to April 2002. He resigned to stand as a list MP for the National Party in the 2002 general election.^[1] Brash was ranked high on the party list and so was elected, despite the Bill English-led National Party being heavily defeated. Brash challenged English's leadership position the next year, and was elected head of the party on 28 October 2003. He delivered a speech at Orewa on 27 January 2004 that proved controversial, expressing opposition to perceived Māori separatism, through New Zealand's equitable measures designed to benefit them.

In the 2005 general election, the National Party made major gains under Brash's leadership and achieved its best result (at that time) since the introduction of the mixed-member proportional electoral system in 1993 – recovering from its worst ever result in 2002. However, National won two seats fewer than the incumbent New Zealand Labour Party, and was unable to secure a majority from the minor parties to form a government. Brash resigned as party leader on 27 November 2006, and retired from Parliament in February 2007.

In October 2008, he was appointed as an adjunct professor of Banking in the Business School at the Auckland University of Technology,^[2] and an adjunct professor in the School of Economics and Finance at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

On 28 April 2011, Brash joined ACT (a libertarian party) as its leader, replacing Rodney Hide.^[3] He resigned as leader on the night of the 2011 general election in November due to ACT's poor showing in the election, and its failure to gain any seats apart from its electorate strong-hold of Epsom. In 2016, he founded the right-wing^[4] lobby group Hobson's Pledge, to seek to nullify the partnership between Māori and the Crown, and further oppose equitable measures for Māori.^[5]

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